HISTORIC FOREST FIRES. 



81 



part of the dania«ie to the neighborhood. The ^ages 

 that wouM have been earned in Inmbering, added to 

 the value of the produce that wonhl have been i)ur- 

 chased to supply the lumber camps, and the taxes that 

 would have been devoted to roads and other i^ublic 

 improvements, furnish a much truer measure of how 



Fig. 76. — A Kocky Mountain coniferous fonst killed by tire. 



North Fork of Sun Kiver, Montana. 



Valley of the 



much, sooner or later, it costs a region when its forests 

 are destroyed by fire. (See figs. 76-81, and Pis. XLI, 

 XLYI, XL VII.) 



The Peshtigo fire of October, 1871, was still more 

 severe than the Miramichi. It covered an area of over 

 2,000 square miles in Wisconsin, and involved a loss, 

 in timber and other property, of many millions of dol- 

 lars. Between 1,200 and 1,500 persons perished, includ- 

 ing nearly half the ])opulation of Peshtigo^ at that time 



